BlackBerry

You know that old iPhone 2 that's sitting in your desk drawer, or maybe an old Blackberry (gasp!) that got stored alongside your Guitar Hero peripherals? Well, EcoATM wants them, and is willing to pay.

There's never a dull moment on Wall Street, especially when earnings season is just about to get under way. Let's go over some of the items that will help shape the week that lies ahead.

Folks aren't buying video games the way they used to -- and that's a problem for the industry. But if the big players are willing to consider some outrageous strategies, they can buy themselves some bonus lives.

You know things are going from bad to worse for BlackBerry farmer Research In Motion when some of the stodgiest companies on the planet start trading in their BlackBerry smartphones for shiny new iPhones. The most recent defector from RIM: Halliburton, the fuddy-duddy oil-field services giant that critics associate with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, Dick Cheney, and no-bid contracts in Iraq.

BlackBerry maker RIM's maligned co-CEOS Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are stepping down, and co-COO Thorsten Heins is taking the reins solo. And while the markets aren't sure about Heins yet, he has one thing going for him his predecessors didn't.

It has been a horrible year for Research In Motion, and things may not be getting any better for the BlackBerry maker come 2012. Despite all of the buyout speculation, RIM's stock has been a disaster. In fact, it's a foregone conclusion that RIM is toast.

Major tech companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia have been eyeing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, according to recent reports. True, we shouldn't jump to any conclusions based on the words of "unnamed sources." But all of the attention RIM's getting does make sense.

It's hard to imagine two companies more different than Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion: Apple's on top of the world, and RIM has fallen off a cliff. But the RIM of today bears a striking resemblance to the Apple of 1997.

If you want to give your loved ones environmental peace and joy, you might want to hold off on buying them the latest hot gadgets as gifts. E-waste is a dirty problem that lingers far beyond the time when Christmas present becomes Christmas past.

Google is solving a problem that many of us have, but that of few us suspected would be dealt with by a smartphone: It's taking its popular mapping platform indoors with interior floor plans of select buildings, among them major airports and large retailers.